Details
Mission and objectives
UNICEF, also known as the United Nations Children's Fund, is a United Nations agency responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to children worldwide. The agency is among the most widespread and recognizable social welfare organizations in the world, with a presence in 192 countries and territories. UNICEF's activities include providing immunizations and disease prevention, administering treatment for children and mothers with HIV, enhancing childhood and maternal nutrition, improving sanitation, promoting education, and providing emergency relief in response to disasters.
Context
UNICEF is a leading humanitarian and development agency working globally for children rights. Child rights begin with safe shelter, nutrition, protection from disaster and conflict and traverse the life cycle. UNICEF strive to ensure that all children are born alive, stay safe and keep learning.
For 77 years, UNICEF endeavor to improve the lives of children and their families. Working with and for children through adolescence and into adulthood requires a global presence whose goal is to produce results and monitor their effects. UNICEF also lobbies and partners with leaders, thinkers and policy makers to help all children realize their rights—especially the most disadvantaged.
The UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional office in Nairobi provides technical support, and oversight for 23 countries, including the generation of regional public goods for thought leadership and advocacy on driving policy, programmes and budget for realizing all children’s rights and leaving no child behind.
Towards this, the Research Specialist will play a crucial role in strengthening the research function in ESAR, providing quality support to the RO and country offices (COs) to ensure high-quality, relevant research is planned, generated, and used to drive policy, programmes, and advocacy. The Specialist will lead efforts to streamline processes for planning and quality assurance and implement innovative knowledge management practices to maximize the uptake and use of evidence for children and adolescents. Additionally, the Specialist will support drafting of latest synthesis of evidence on the situation of children in the region, capacity strengthening of staff and relevant partners on quality and ethical research conduct, uptake and use.
The Research Specialist will be working under the supervision of the regional Data and Research Manager part of the Programme, Planning and Monitoring Section in ESARO. The incumbent will engage relevant CoE and country office focal points and section staff in driving the agenda forward including wider regional partnerships with relevant entities (academia, research institutes, think-tanks and others).
For 77 years, UNICEF endeavor to improve the lives of children and their families. Working with and for children through adolescence and into adulthood requires a global presence whose goal is to produce results and monitor their effects. UNICEF also lobbies and partners with leaders, thinkers and policy makers to help all children realize their rights—especially the most disadvantaged.
The UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional office in Nairobi provides technical support, and oversight for 23 countries, including the generation of regional public goods for thought leadership and advocacy on driving policy, programmes and budget for realizing all children’s rights and leaving no child behind.
Towards this, the Research Specialist will play a crucial role in strengthening the research function in ESAR, providing quality support to the RO and country offices (COs) to ensure high-quality, relevant research is planned, generated, and used to drive policy, programmes, and advocacy. The Specialist will lead efforts to streamline processes for planning and quality assurance and implement innovative knowledge management practices to maximize the uptake and use of evidence for children and adolescents. Additionally, the Specialist will support drafting of latest synthesis of evidence on the situation of children in the region, capacity strengthening of staff and relevant partners on quality and ethical research conduct, uptake and use.
The Research Specialist will be working under the supervision of the regional Data and Research Manager part of the Programme, Planning and Monitoring Section in ESARO. The incumbent will engage relevant CoE and country office focal points and section staff in driving the agenda forward including wider regional partnerships with relevant entities (academia, research institutes, think-tanks and others).
Task description
KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES and DUTIES & TASKS
Within the delegated authority and under the given organizational set-up, the incumbent may be assigned the primarily, shared, or contributory accountabilities for all or part of the following areas of major duties and key end-results.
Summary of key accountabilities
• Support and improve research governance mechanisms and ensure office workplans have coordinated, integrated and prioritized research activities. (25%)
• Quality assurance of Research activities. (25%)
• Research Capacity Strengthening. (15%)
• Knowledge generation, management and monitoring uptake. (25%)
• Research partnerships. (10%)
1. Support and improve research governance mechanisms and ensure office workplans have coordinated, integrated and prioritized research activities. (25%)
Ensure that the regional and country Offices have well-prioritised and realistic plan of research activities that drive UNICEF ESAR’s thought leadership agenda for realizing children’s rights in ESAR.
• Support the coordination, establishment, upkeep and implementation of research governance mechanisms in alignment with relevant corporate policies and procedures across the regional, Center of Excellences (CoEs) and country offices (research policy, QA procedure, Ethics in evidence procedure, Open Access policy, data protection, academic publishing and authorship including recommendations from the ESAR research function review) .
• Make professional contributions and provide technical assistance for the planning and prioritization (tier 1) of research objectives (regional flagship and priority results, advocacy opportunities, partnership and convening events), and activities in multi-year and annual IMERPs , in consultation with country offices, CoEs and in line with the Regional Evidence Committee (REC) deliberations.
• Support country research planning processes and review and provide technical inputs on annual/rolling country IMERPs, including the streamlining of cross-country or multi-country research activities where relevant.
• In consultation with country research focal points identify, rollout ESAR research benchmarking and monitoring framework and enhance relevant guidance, tools and templates for research planning, budgeting, dissemination and use that drive though leadership and child rights agenda.
2. Quality assurance of Research activities. (25%)
Ensure UNICEF led and supported research activities are child-rights driven, utility-focused and methodologically sound.
• Provide technical support and guidance for developing research plans and theories of change with clear purpose, use and users at onset especially for priority tier 1 research projects.
• Technical support and guidance to formulate Terms of Reference and research designs of high quality in line with budgets and timelines and compliant with the organization's policies and guidelines.
• Provide oversight and quality assurance of UNICEF-led and/ or commissioned research activities through review of TORs, inception reports and draft reports as relevant in compliance with ESARO standard operating procedures.
• Develop and establish research quality review mechanisms for ESAR through Long-Term agreements with third party institutions, partnerships with relevant research entities and through leveraging relevant regional and global UNICEF capacities (ex. Global Office of Research and Foresight – Innocenti).
3. Research Capacity Strengthening.
Support strengthening of research capacities of staff and relevant regional and country partners on, responsible, ethical, child-rights driven and utilization-focused research activities.
• Promote the awareness and understanding of the shared responsibility of the research function among all staff members through communication, training, learning and development activities organization wide.
• In consultation with ESAR research focal points identify capacity gaps and develop relevant strategies and plans to address them – utilizing range of appropriate learning strategies such as self-learning, seminars, online workshops and experience sharing webinars from internal and external sources.
• Actively seek partnerships knowledge institutions and share innovations in research on advancing child rights
4. Knowledge generation, management and monitoring uptake.
Draft and update regional knowledge products and ensure knowledge management practices are established and maintained that facilitates access, uptake, use and monitoring impact.
• Draft/ update quarterly briefs on the context and situation of children and child rights in the region synthesizing relevant data and evidence.
• Produce country profiles on the progress against child related SDGs, agenda 2063 and agenda 2040 for children targets.
• Engage, compile and review quality of country and regional IMERPs (or equivalent) and ensure data availability to track progress against benchmarks.
• Develop guidance and tools, as relevant, for harmonization of activity tracking files across offices and towards harmonized practices for publication management and retrieval - repositories for research and related products to facilitate access and uptake.
• In collaboration with KM network develop and implement to track research uptake and use including mechanisms for download statistics and citation tracking (ex. Devex).
• Identify, draft and disseminate summary research products (infographs, briefs, syntheses) based on the concluded research activities leveraging different sources as relevant to the needs and audience.
• Undertake lessons-learned reviews on successful and unsuccessful research practices and experience in the region, and ensure they are shared as appropriate.
5. Research Partnerships
Identify regional research entities and develop partnerships for research and capacity building.
• Map and maintain a network of research organisations, think tanks and academic institutions that generate quality research that can support policy, programming and advocacy endeavours for realizing children’s rights in ESAR.
• Similarly, collaborate to identify research training centres to implement capacity building strategies as relevant in the region.
• Collaborate and participate in intersectoral collaboration with operations, UN in relation to Monitoring and Evaluation.
• Similarly, engage with relevant knowledge networks to identify innovations and lessons learned that may be relevant for the region and partners to improve their research function.
Within the delegated authority and under the given organizational set-up, the incumbent may be assigned the primarily, shared, or contributory accountabilities for all or part of the following areas of major duties and key end-results.
Summary of key accountabilities
• Support and improve research governance mechanisms and ensure office workplans have coordinated, integrated and prioritized research activities. (25%)
• Quality assurance of Research activities. (25%)
• Research Capacity Strengthening. (15%)
• Knowledge generation, management and monitoring uptake. (25%)
• Research partnerships. (10%)
1. Support and improve research governance mechanisms and ensure office workplans have coordinated, integrated and prioritized research activities. (25%)
Ensure that the regional and country Offices have well-prioritised and realistic plan of research activities that drive UNICEF ESAR’s thought leadership agenda for realizing children’s rights in ESAR.
• Support the coordination, establishment, upkeep and implementation of research governance mechanisms in alignment with relevant corporate policies and procedures across the regional, Center of Excellences (CoEs) and country offices (research policy, QA procedure, Ethics in evidence procedure, Open Access policy, data protection, academic publishing and authorship including recommendations from the ESAR research function review) .
• Make professional contributions and provide technical assistance for the planning and prioritization (tier 1) of research objectives (regional flagship and priority results, advocacy opportunities, partnership and convening events), and activities in multi-year and annual IMERPs , in consultation with country offices, CoEs and in line with the Regional Evidence Committee (REC) deliberations.
• Support country research planning processes and review and provide technical inputs on annual/rolling country IMERPs, including the streamlining of cross-country or multi-country research activities where relevant.
• In consultation with country research focal points identify, rollout ESAR research benchmarking and monitoring framework and enhance relevant guidance, tools and templates for research planning, budgeting, dissemination and use that drive though leadership and child rights agenda.
2. Quality assurance of Research activities. (25%)
Ensure UNICEF led and supported research activities are child-rights driven, utility-focused and methodologically sound.
• Provide technical support and guidance for developing research plans and theories of change with clear purpose, use and users at onset especially for priority tier 1 research projects.
• Technical support and guidance to formulate Terms of Reference and research designs of high quality in line with budgets and timelines and compliant with the organization's policies and guidelines.
• Provide oversight and quality assurance of UNICEF-led and/ or commissioned research activities through review of TORs, inception reports and draft reports as relevant in compliance with ESARO standard operating procedures.
• Develop and establish research quality review mechanisms for ESAR through Long-Term agreements with third party institutions, partnerships with relevant research entities and through leveraging relevant regional and global UNICEF capacities (ex. Global Office of Research and Foresight – Innocenti).
3. Research Capacity Strengthening.
Support strengthening of research capacities of staff and relevant regional and country partners on, responsible, ethical, child-rights driven and utilization-focused research activities.
• Promote the awareness and understanding of the shared responsibility of the research function among all staff members through communication, training, learning and development activities organization wide.
• In consultation with ESAR research focal points identify capacity gaps and develop relevant strategies and plans to address them – utilizing range of appropriate learning strategies such as self-learning, seminars, online workshops and experience sharing webinars from internal and external sources.
• Actively seek partnerships knowledge institutions and share innovations in research on advancing child rights
4. Knowledge generation, management and monitoring uptake.
Draft and update regional knowledge products and ensure knowledge management practices are established and maintained that facilitates access, uptake, use and monitoring impact.
• Draft/ update quarterly briefs on the context and situation of children and child rights in the region synthesizing relevant data and evidence.
• Produce country profiles on the progress against child related SDGs, agenda 2063 and agenda 2040 for children targets.
• Engage, compile and review quality of country and regional IMERPs (or equivalent) and ensure data availability to track progress against benchmarks.
• Develop guidance and tools, as relevant, for harmonization of activity tracking files across offices and towards harmonized practices for publication management and retrieval - repositories for research and related products to facilitate access and uptake.
• In collaboration with KM network develop and implement to track research uptake and use including mechanisms for download statistics and citation tracking (ex. Devex).
• Identify, draft and disseminate summary research products (infographs, briefs, syntheses) based on the concluded research activities leveraging different sources as relevant to the needs and audience.
• Undertake lessons-learned reviews on successful and unsuccessful research practices and experience in the region, and ensure they are shared as appropriate.
5. Research Partnerships
Identify regional research entities and develop partnerships for research and capacity building.
• Map and maintain a network of research organisations, think tanks and academic institutions that generate quality research that can support policy, programming and advocacy endeavours for realizing children’s rights in ESAR.
• Similarly, collaborate to identify research training centres to implement capacity building strategies as relevant in the region.
• Collaborate and participate in intersectoral collaboration with operations, UN in relation to Monitoring and Evaluation.
• Similarly, engage with relevant knowledge networks to identify innovations and lessons learned that may be relevant for the region and partners to improve their research function.
At Impactpool we do our best to provide you the most accurate info, but closing dates may be wrong on our site. Please check on the recruiting organization's page for the exact info. Candidates are responsible for complying with deadlines and are encouraged to submit applications well ahead.
Before applying, please make sure that you have read the requirements for the position and that you qualify. Applications from non-qualifying applicants will most likely be discarded by the recruiting manager.